OAPs and debt
The UK could see more and more senior citizens seeking debt advice or obtaining IVAs as hundreds struggle with financial hardship.
Research has shown that a quarter of our pensioners still have the responsibility of repaying mortgages and many are quite heavily in debt. Pensioners have been forced to become dependant on credit cards as a way of being able to manage their debt repayments and general living costs. Many have acquired a long list of companies to which they owe payment including store cards, personal loans, overdrafts, mail order catalogues and money borrowed from family and friends.
As a result, pensioners are falling prey to equity release schemes which seem to be the only option for worried senior citizens who cannot continue to manage the ever increasing amount of debt that lies before them.
Pensioners are particularly proud but are also very vulnerable and many are becoming victims of the false promises offered by door to door salesmen or literature through the post. Those who do not seek proper debt advice are likely to add debt as a contributing health problem as they sink deeper and deeper into trouble. Many pensioners out of sheer desperation are running up extortionately high credit card bills which will never be settled but will die with them. However, some credit card companies have found a way to recoup these losses by ensuring that they retrieve any outstanding balances from their properties of the deceased.
Therefore, some credit card companies are actually encouraging pensioners to take on credit of up to three times more than their income with the added promise that they need only meet the minimum payment each month. These pensioners are in dire need of legitimate free debt advice so as they can live out their remaining years with as little stress as possible and without debt putting them into an early grave. Pensioners need to be aware of the various forms of debt help that are available to them so as they can manage their finances correctly before someone more unscrupulous reaches them first.
Debt Advice News posted on 30/05/2007 15:40:12
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